The Smaller Parks/Former Cricket Grounds

The Social World of Nottingham’s Historic Green Spaces

Church (Rock) The Forest Cemetery)

Waterloo Promenade

The Arboretum Elm Avenue, Corporation Oaks & Robin Hood’s General Chase Cemetery

Bath Street Cricket Ground

The Meadows Cricket Ground Queen’s Walk

Fredrick Jackson’s Map, c ͘1882, reproduced courtesy of Manuscripts and Special Collections, University of Nottingham

THE SMALLER PARKS/FORMER CRICKET GROUNDS

(Victoria Park, Queen’s Walk Recreation Ground and St Michael’s Recreation Ground) Compiled on behalf of the Social World of Nottingham’s Green Spaces project team by Dr Judith Mills

FOREWORD

In 2013-14, the University of Nottingham’s project The Social World of Nottingham’s Historic Green Spaces saw a small group of academics collaborate with Friends, history and heritage groups as well as individuals interested in the city’s green spaces and the City Council which owns the spaces, to research the creation and development of Nottingham’s oldest parks and open spaces ͘ This was followed in 2016 by a Public Engagement project that resulted in a number of events including a play based on the research, a month-long exhibition, workshops for children, a website and some published articles. Conversations with representatives from some of the groups involved suggested that they would find it useful to have a simple listing of the sequence of events around the creation and development of the parks and open spaces. The results of these conversations are a set of reports - Fact Files - which summarise information about the spaces created as a result of the 1845 Enclosure Act. Sometimes the quantity of information is considerable, and sometimes it is quite scanty. As well as listing the facts, the reports also aim to illustrate some of the concerns and issues that surround the creation of the green spaces and give a flavour of contemporary attitudes to health, recreation and leisure which underlie their conception. At the end of each report is a list of sources and suggestions for further reading for anyone who would like to take their interest further. There are five reports The Arboretum The Forest The Public Walks The Smaller Parks/Former Cricket Grounds The General Cemetery and the Church (Rock) Cemetery They are summaries of research carried out during 2013-14, and are concerned mainly with the period 1845-1914. Judith Mills

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

None of this work would have been possible without the support of the Green Spaces Project team, led by Professor John Beckett and the Parks and Open Spaces teams of the City Council. The contribution of and collaboration with the Friends of the Arboretum, Friends of the Forest, Mapperley and Sherwood History group and the other volunteers was also invaluable to the project as a whole. Also invaluable was the support of the staff at Nottinghamshire Archives and Nottingham Local Studies where many of the original documents are stored and cared for. All photographs and images in this report are courtesy of Picture the Past (https://picturethepast.org.uk/) and Nottingham City Council, unless otherwise stated.

THE SMALLER PARKS

Contents page

Introduction: The 1845 Enclosure Act 1 Background to the Creation of the Parks 2

St Michael’s Recreation Ground 2 Bath Street Cricket Ground 3 Victoria Park 4

Meadows Cricket Ground / Queen’s Walk Recreation Ground 4 Cricket matches on the Meadows 6 Football on the Meadows 7 Other uses 7 M.S. & L. Railway and Victoria Embankment 7 Sources and Suggestions for Further Reading 9

Cricket in The Meadows: a scene from the project’s specially commissioned play Breathing Spaces by Andy Barrett, performed August 2016. Photo: Jo Wheeler

St Michael’s Recreation Ground

Bath Street Cricket Ground

The Meadows Cricket Ground

iii

Introduction: The 1845 Enclosure Act At the beginning of the 19th century the boundaries of Nottingham were (roughly) from Castle Road in the west to just the other side of Huntingdon Street in the east. The southern border was the river Trent and Gregory Boulevard now approximates the northern boundary.

Most of this area was farm land - some owned by the Borough Council but much in private hands. People lived and worked in the area surrounding the Market Place (now Market Square) and St Mary’s Church. The northern edge was Parliament Street with Broadmarsh marking the southern limit of the town. According to the website A Vision of Britain Through Time, in 1841 the population of Nottingham was 72,309 people, living in an area about 1 mile wide and ½-¾ mile high, with the odd off-shoot along Mansfield Road and Derby Road (GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, URL: http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/datavalue/20702 ). Inevitably, this densely packed population combined with poor Staveley and Wood Map, c.1832, sanitation led to high mortality rates, especially infant courtesy of Manuscripts and Special mortality and Nottingham was used as a case study in Collections, University of Nottingham the 1840 Government Report on the Health of Towns. Other Government Inquiries promoted gentle exercise and ‘rational recreation’ as a remedy to some of the social problems of the period An obvious solution was to build more houses on the fields surrounding the town but as well as many being in private hands, they were protected by ancient privileges held by the town’s Burgesses who, for example, had the right to graze cattle and sheep on the fields (whoever owned them) after the harvest had been collected. An Inclosure Act was required to overcome these rights - though today this is more commonly referred to as an Enclosure Act. Empowered by Government inquiries and a better understanding of how disease was transmitted, a group of Nottingham’s leading townsmen drew up an Enclosure Act which was - eventually - adopted by the Borough Council and presented to Parliament. It received Royal Assent on 30 June 1845. Two key clauses in the Act ensured that between 125 and 130 acres was set aside as recreational space to be used by the people of Nottingham. Although three Enclosure Commissioners were appointed to oversee the revocation of the burgesses’ rights, lay out the new roads and other infrastructure, and survey and sell building plots, it was the responsibility of the Borough Council to negotiate where the green spaces should be sited. Having agreed with the Commissioners on location, the Council then had to fence, lay-out, manage and develop them for public use. A number of sub-committees were set up: the Enclosure Committee (not to be confused with the Enclosure Commissioners), the Race Committee, the Arboretum Committee and so on. These eventually were united into the Public Parks Committee and then the Public Parks and Burial Grounds Committee. Today, they have become the Parks and Open Spaces service.

Background to the Creation of the Parks The parks now known as Queen’s Walk Recreation Ground and Victoria Park were originally created as cricket grounds. According to a W H Wylie in his book Old and New Nottingham, published in 1853, there were four cricket grounds in Nottingham. One was at Trent Bridge and therefore outside the remit of the Enclosure Act (and potentially outside the authority of the Borough Council). The other three were on The Forest, in the Meadows and on the Clayfield. The Forest cricket ground was in the middle of the race course. The exact location of the other two fields is not known but was probably close to the site of the post-enclosure grounds. In addition to the two cricket grounds, about 1 acre was allocated for a small recreation ground known as St Michael’s and land was set aside for public bath next to the Meadows Recreation Ground, but never built, despite the plan being revived in 1910. Like all the new public spaces, they were managed on a day-to-day basis by the town’s police force.͘

St Michael’s Recreation Ground The Enclosure Act allowed for up to 130 acres of land to be allocated to public recreation and utility. By October 129 acres had been allocated to public walks, cemeteries, Arboretum and other public recreation spaces, leaving one acre in the Clayfield ‘at the disposal of the Commissioners’͘ Eventually this acre was identified as a small plot of land just off St Michael’s Street and Millstone Lane (now absorbed into Huntingdon Street). Initially, very little was done to develop the site. 1852 Residents next to the site complained that it was a great Nuisance to all in the Neighbourhood in consequence of the numerous bad characters assembling there every day, but more especially on Sundays, when they amuse themselves by gambling and gratify their evil propensities by throwing stones at the houses and are continually breaking the Windows and Chimney Pots, and if any remonstrance by made to them, they abuse the person and threaten further mischief, we are all convinced that if allowed to continue, it will be a School for vice and the demoralizing of the rising generation. The Council decided to hand the land back to the Inclosure Commissioners for housing, but the Commissioners must have refused it as by 1858, the Council were developing the site for recreation. 1858 £250 to be spent on resurfacing the grounds, building a lodge with drinking fountain and dog trough, and gas lighting. Public urinals to be built on a corner of the site. Alderman Heymann offered to buy gymnastic poles and other apparatus for the park ‘at his own expense’͘ 1877 Horizontal bars and swings were installed. The area became known as St Michael’s playground. The park is still shown as ‘Recreation Ground’ on the c ͘1913 Ordnance Survey map, but by the 1930s, part of it was designated as car park, though the Lodge was still standing. By 1950s, the remaining area had become Huntingdon Street Bus Station, and from the late 20th century until recently the former Staples Office Supplies shop probably occupied most of the site.

Bath Street Cricket Ground The area where Victoria Park was created was originally known as Meadow Platts, in the Clayfield, and the park itself was called Bath Street Recreation Ground or Bath Street Cricket Ground. Initially the recreation ground was just over 7 acres in area, though by 1904, the size had reduced to just over 4 acres. 1853 Work began to level the area to create a cricket ground, subject to the surplus soil being removed at no cost to the Council. The area, however, seems to have been undefined with no boundary fences and generally unsupervised. 1864 nearby residents asked to have the ground ‘enclosed and regulated’͘. The Council agreed to plant and fence the cricket ground. plant portion of each corner of cricket ground with shrubs and enclose these portions with a ‘... substantial non palisade fence and to put down on the sides of the ground adjoining to Bath Street and Robin Hood Street a plain iron post and rail fence with Gas Lamps at frequent intervals’. Complaints continued to be received and various schemes were tried to control it. 1877 The Council decided that cricket could not be played within 30 yards of the road. The boundary was to be marked on the ground so that the policeman on duty could tell when games were being played outside the permitted area. 1882 Henry Thornton wrote to the Police Superintendent complaining about the ‘rough play’ and danger from cricket balls. Mr Thornton had nearly been knocked down. There were also complaints about the number of cricket balls being sent into the adjoining street. Sneinton Police wrote to the Chief Constable that two posts had been laid as guides and play should only happen above the guides. The police were ordered to ensure this was adhered to, however, they find that young men who when playing make big hits send the ball beyond the boundary ... playing thus becomes dangerous ... 1884 It was decided that no one over the age of 13 should be allowed to play cricket on Bath Street because of the ‘rough and dangerous character’ of some of the games ͘ 1887 The Chaplain and Sexton of St Mary’s Cemetery (formerly called the Cholera Burial Ground adjacent to the recreation ground) complained about men and youths who desecrate the cemetery by climbing over the wall to retrieve cricket and footballs.͘ They ‘scramble over graves, pulling up grave-stones etc. to the great annoyance of their owners’͘ The condition of the grounds was also very poor; newspaper reports over several years claimed that there was barely a blade of grass to be seen and when it was wet anyone passing through was ankle-deep in mud. Some people wanted it improved as a cricket ground, others converted to a children’s playground 1892 Wells & Hind, solicitors wrote to the Council on behalf of owners of property adjacent to Bath St. Recreation Ground, complaining about the lack of maintenance which was ‘ruinous’ to their clients T͘ he Council was urged to put into good order. ͘

The Council considered four options for improving the grounds and in April 1892 approved the most expensive, at a cost of £3,000. It was to be • laid out Pleasure ground with walks and plantations • the remainder to be Turfed • a space about 210ft x 100ft near Bath St. set aside for swings etc. as a playground for children. Victoria Park

Bath Street Recreation Ground was renamed ‘The Victoria Park’ and formally opened in May 1894 by the Mayor. The Nottingham Evening Post reported that the park had been designed by Mr Brown, the Borough Engineer and the work carried out by Mr Bardill - in the 1890s Bardills were responsible for maintaining all the recreational grounds on behalf of the Council. As a ‘pleasure ground’ bands played in the park occasionally. ͘ In 1906 three week-night concerts attracted a total audience of about 6,500 people

Meadows Cricket Ground / Queen’s Walk Recreation Ground The Meadows was another area where cricket was traditionally played which was possibly a more important space than the Meadow Platts area. It was, however, a shared space; in 1843 the Nottingham Journal reported that a court action between cow-keepers and publicans (who arranged the matches) over the rights of townsmen to play cricket on the Meadows had been settled by compromise. The size and site for the cricket ground on the west side of Queen’s Walk was agreed by the Inclosure Commissioners in 1846 and did not change to any significant extent throughout the negotiations over the remaining recreational areas. The main change was a slight reduction in size from 7 acres to just over 6 acres. Once opened, the biggest problem appears to have been flooding.

1853 it was proposed to build a Lodge (i.e. police lodge) to protect both the Walk and the cricket grounds. It was needed due to the number of serious offences committed there. However, the proposal was withdrawn because of problems with flooding. 1855 complaints that the grounds were unusable and £75 was agreed to pay for levelling and re- turfing 1864 The Inclosure Committee reported that the grounds were in a poor state and recommended that land on the east side of Queen’s Walk was allotted to provide additional playing space. 1872 The release of land at the west end of the Forest for housing development (Waterloo Crescent etc)͘ allowed additional land on the east side of Queen’s Walk to be acquired

Both areas appear to be referred to as the Meadows Cricket Ground or Meadows Recreational Ground, and it is difficult to differentiate between the two areas within the documents. Work continued to improve drainage and playing surfaces and both areas were popular for both cricket and football. 1876 The Chief Constable was asked to provide an additional policeman on Saturdays to keep order during football games 1878 The Council decided against building a pavilion because of cost and because most clubs brought tents with them to change in (they refused to build a pavilion on the Forest for the same reasons). 1880 the Police constable in charge of the Meadows reported that it required re-turfing 1882 the area on the east side of Queen’s Walk was levelled and re-turfed, and trees planted alongside an open drain. Swings were installed at the south end of the cricket ground. 1884 Sergeant Watson, a retired policeman, was appointed as caretaker for 15s per week during the cricket season and 10s during the football season 1885 the Council budgeted £75 for levelling, fencing and laying out the free cricket and football grounds in the Meadows 1890 The Nottingham Journal published a letter from the Castle Gate Cricket Club complaining about the dangerous state of the playing ground and lack of changing facilities. On an average Saturday 15 - 16 clubs (about 350 players) had a ‘hovel about 12 feet square’ to change in.

In 1911, the Council proposed to turn the Queen’s Walk Cricket Grounds (note the change in name) into a children’s recreation ground, but the proposal was withdrawn due to opposition ͘ In 1928, the Council said that it did not proposed to turn the cricket grounds into recreational space, however, it eventually became a park, not a sports ground.

Cricket matches on the Meadows Despite all the complaints, the Meadows was a very popular venue for club matches, though the reports probably refer to the grounds on both sides of Queen’s Walk, not just to the area allocated as part of the Enclosure Act on the west side of the Walk. 1885 The Nottingham Evening Post reported on matches played on 12 May between • Nottingham Manufacturing Co. v. Midland Railways • Long-Hedge Lane United v. Imperial Amateurs • St Luke’s Institute v S͘ t C͘ atharine’s And on one Saturday in September of the same year

• Meadow Willow v Stapleford • Bohemians v S͘ t Mary’s Rangers • Jardine v. Midland Railway • Star United v. Havelock

Meadows Cricket team, 1895

1896 the Nottingham Guardian claimed There are not many towns in the kingdom which are more fortunately situations in respect of space for the exercise of cricket, the greatest of all pastimes, than in Nottingham. Nor are there many communities in which the game has more zealous followers. The really excellent public grounds of the Forest and the Meadows have contributed to this result. 1911 The Public Parks Committee reported that there were 6 match grounds and 7 practice pitches on Queen’s Walk, used by 7 clubs and 85 matches were played during the season.

Football on the Meadows The cricket grounds doubled as football pitches, however, these may have been the casual or ‘free’ grounds which anyone could use rather than the formal ones used for club matches. The Public Parks and Burial Grounds Committee reported annually. Their annual reports to the Council show that after Victoria Embankment was opened (1898) football was played there, not in the Meadows.

Other uses The Meadows cricket ground was used for other events as well as sport. 1881 a request was made to hold open air services on Sundays We may erect a Tent but it seems that we shall be able to hold the services with comfort without and therefore (should this be so) shall not go to that expense. If the policeman on duty on that part would walk to & fro during the service (from 3 til 3) it wd be helpful

1887 permission was given to hold a Camp meeting 1903 an article in the Nottingham Evening Post reported that the Meadows Hall Junior Mixed school used the Meadows for play at certain times of day as they did not have a playground of their own 1913 Empire Day celebrations

M.S.& L. Railway and Victoria Embankment In 1895, the M.S.& L. Railway used statutory powers to acquire 20 acres of land to the north east of Queen’s Walk which had been traditionally used for recreation, though it was not a designated recreation ground. The Council then acquired land on the north bank of the Trent and began to develop Victoria Embankment. The work also included draining, ‘filling-up’ and levelling the Meadows cricket ground which seems to have been a never-ending task. In 1907 alone, 17,676 loads of soil and ashes were carted to the Meadows for levelling.

Queen’s Walk Recreation Ground, 2016

Photos Judith Mills

Sources and Suggestions for further reading

Original Documents

Nottinghamshire Archives Borough Council Minute Books 1836-1876 Reference Nos. These are hand-written Minute Books and usually contain reports, or CA 3595 - 3636: summaries of reports, from the sub-committees, correspondence received, details of debates and often voting records. Borough Council Minute Books 1877-1915 reading room, After 1877, the official minutes were distributed in printed form, which shelf have been bound together into annual volumes. Sub-committee reports, in the main, were bound separately and references to these are minimal. Correspondence is sometimes referred to, but overall the minutes are summaries not detailed records. Borough Council - reports from subcommittees 1871 - 1915 CA TC 1/2/2 - 44 From about 1870, sub-committee reports were distributed in printed form for presentation to the Council. From about 1877, this became the norm. The reports have been bound together in large annual volumes and are separate from the Minutes of the Council meetings they were presented at, so some cross-referencing is needed. They are often very detailed and includes maps, plans, diagrams and lengthy reports. They are, therefore, far more detailed that the summaries written up in the earlier hand-written Minute Books. (Note: there are also copies of some of the annual volumes at the University of Nottingham, Manuscripts and Special Collections.) Extracts from the Borough Council records have also been published in Records of the Borough of Nottingham, IX (1836-1900)͘ See ‘Suggestions for further reading, below) Inclosure Commissioners Minute Books Vols 1-8 (1845-1847) Part of a series CA 7709-16 of Minute Books kept by the Inclosure Commissioners. These volumes include relevant extracts from the Enclosure Act and details of the negotiations with the Council as the ‘green spaces’ were identified Correspondence Files All correspondence to and from the Council passed through the Town CA TC 19/4/1 Clerk’s Office before being passed to the relevant sub-committee. Some CA TC 19/7/1 letters are therefore addressed to/from the Town Clerk and some from CA TC 70/1-3 Committees. CA TC 70/34-35 CA TC 100/1-2 Correspondence has been split into ‘received’ and ‘sent’ files and the dates CA TC 125/5 of individual files do not match, so some cross-referencing is needed to see CA TC 128/2-3 the full trail. Some correspondence has been split off into topic files.

Not all correspondence files have survived so some trails are incomplete, but the surviving documents give a great insight into day-to-day Council business.

Nottingham Local Studies Library As well as a collection of books on the history of Nottingham, the Local Studies Library has a large collection of ephemera, including: • Maps, including the map of Nottingham annotated by Moses Wood in 1848, Inclosure Commissioners proposed layout of New Nottingham, Ordinance Survey maps and many others • Architectural Drawings of the proposed development of Waterloo Crescent • Photographs - some are available on-line, but many are unpublished • Paintings and prints of 19th and early 20th century Nottingham • Programmes, e.g. band concerts, jubilee and coronation events • Broadsheet posters and other printed material • Catalogues and booklets, e.g. birds in the Arboretum aviary • 19th century newspapers - on microfilm

Manuscripts and Special Collections, University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections holds • Volumes of the printed Reports to Council (on shelf) • William Parson’s Diary (MS 489/3) • 19th century newspapers • Maps

On-line Sources Nottingham Green Spaces website. http://www.ng-spaces.org.uk/ which comprises articles about many of the themes outlined in this report, as well as descriptions of Project activities.

Newspapers Newspapers are a valuable source for 19th and 20th century history. They include commentaries on events, correspondence and often detailed accounts of Council meetings - including heckling and asides not recorded in the formal minutes. The main newspapers are available on-line through the British Newspaper Archive https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk// It is a subscription website, however, it can be accessed free-of-charge at local studies libraries and Nottinghamshire Archives. Local titles available on-line are

• The Nottingham Journal • Nottingham Evening Post • Nottinghamshire Guardian • Nottingham Review and General Advertiser

Nottingham Local Studies Library also holds microfilm copies of a range of other less well-known papers and magazines.

Nottinghamshire History website: This contains extracts from books and articles in history magazines and journals, originally published at the end of the 19th and early-to-mid 20th centuries http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/default.htm

Nottinghamshire Bibliography: http://www.thorotonsociety.org.uk/bibliography.htm is a web-based means of accessing all bibliographical information for the history of the city and county. It lists published books, journal articles, unpublished theses/dissertations and ‘grey’ literature such as archaeological reports and local authority conservation appraisals. It is searchable by author, title, place and subject.

Nottinghamshire Insight Mapping: https://maps.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/insightmapping/# is an on- line collection of Ordinance Survey maps from 1875 to approximately 2008. Using the drop-down menus, sliders and zoom functions they can be overlaid on each other to reveal how areas have changed - or not - over time. The site also includes some aerial photography.

A Vision of Britain Through Time: http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/ brings together historical surveys of Britain to create a record of how the country and its localities have changed. It was created by Humphrey Southall and the Great Britain Historical GIS Project (Geographical Information System). It is based in the Department of Geography, University of Portsmouth.

Hansard https://hansard.parliament.uk/ the official reports of all Parliamentary debates for the last 200 years are available on this searchable site.

Published Books and Articles

All the books listed below should be easily available from Nottingham Local Studies Library or Nottinghamshire Archives. The list represents a selection of what is available. Nottingham’s Historic Green Space, edited by John Beckett and Paul Elliott - forthcoming A Centenary History of Nottingham, second edition (2006) edited by John Beckett, in particular the chapter ‘Municipal Reform and Parliamentary Enclosure’ British Urban Trees: A Social and Cultural History, c.1800-1914 (2016) by Paul Elliott

Old and New Nottingham (1853) by W H Wylie Old Nottingham (1968) by M I Thomis Nottingham Through 500 Years: A History of Town Government, second edition (1960) by Duncan Gray Records of the Borough of Nottingham, IX, 1836 - 1900, edited by Duncan Gray The Gardens, Parks and Walks of Nottingham and District (1926) by R Mellors Transactions of the Thoroton Society, published annually, relevant articles include: • Paul Elliott and Christine Drew, ‘Victorian gardening, horticulture and arboriculture in the Midlands: John Frederick Wood (1806-1865) of Nottingham and the 'Midland Florist and Suburban Horticulturist'', Vol 120 (2016)

• Judith Mills, 'The transformation of green space in old and new Nottingham', Vol 118 (2014) • J V Beckett and K Brand, ‘Enclosure, Improvement and the Rise of 'New Nottingham' 1845- 67’, Vol 98, (1984) Victorian Nottingham: a story in pictures - a series of books on Victorian Nottingham by Richard Iliffe and Wilfrid Baguley, published by Nottingham Historical Film Unit in 1973-77. Relevant chapters are: • The Forest, Vol 10 • The Arboretum, Vol 10 • Ballooning in Nottingham, Vol 10 • The Park, Vol 13 (includes an image of cricket being played in The Meadows and other images of The Meadows, before development) • Football, Vol 14 • Cricket, Vol 18 • Farewell Queen Victoria, Vol 20 (includes details of Jubilee Celebrations on The Forest) Nottingham Civic Society Newsletter publishes occasional articles, such as: • S Best, ‘A Lively Club - Exploring Nottingham’s General Cemetery’, No ͘80 (1989) • S Best ‘Noblest Sons and Daughters: Exploring the Church Cemetery, Nottingham’, No ͘89 (1992) • S Best, ‘Victoria park and Victorian Nottingham ͘From eyesore to grass lawns and shrubberies’, No 1͘ 23 (2004) The Nottinghamshire Historian, the twice-yearly publication of the Nottinghamshire Local History Association occasionally publishes relevant for example: • J E Heath, ‘Leisure Provision in Victorian Nottingham’, No. 28, 1982 • J L Noble, ‘Choirs, Cricket and Gardening: Some Leisure Activities in Victorian Nottingham’, No. 29, 1982

Other Nottingham Civic Society organises walks through the General and Church Cemeteries. See their website for more information. https://www.nottinghamcivicsociety.org.uk/ The Friends of the Forest organise an annual Inclosure Walk from Wilford Bridge, past most of the Enclosure parks and open spaces to The Forest. It usually happens on the first Sunday in July and is led by a different speaker every year.

Annual Inclosure Walk 2016 Photo: J Coope